The American women's basketball tournament is long over, UConn's 72-52 throttling of Louisville complete, and you find yourself at the Texas Hold 'Em table. As expected, you're running this thing.

Fourteen competitors have called it a night (a lot for one table, I know), and one reckless, go-for-broke challenger remains. This guy's a real player. Not near your level, but he's always testing out these new, quirky strategies.

You're looking around for a bartender. It's got to be last call soon, right?

While you're scanning the casino floor, the dealer -- that sleazy dealer -- snipes a King off the bottom of the deck and slips it to the other guy. Dealer's idea. Spice things up a little, you know? The guy tucks it under his leg, ready to pull it the next moment you're sidetracked.

Of course, you outplay him anyway and finish him off. The outcome is inevitable.

But we're not here at Mohegan to discuss outcome, because the outcome is going to be the same wherever against whoever.

We're here at Mohegan to discuss principles.

The UConn women gashed their seventh top 10 opponent Monday night at The Sun, and in a week they very well could be named the No. 1 seed in the Louisville regional. As in, at the Yum! Center. As in, the reward for the group that just completed perhaps the best regular season ever could be a straight-up away game versus second-seeded Louisville in a hostile environment in the Elite Eight.

Tell me how that's fair.

Surely, you'll say it's unfair that Mohegan hosted the AAC tournament, which to an extent it is. League tournaments, however, are hardly as high-stakes as regional finals.

Surely, you'll say none of this matters, that the committee could insert Tennessee as the No. 16 seed, put Stanford and South Carolina as the No. 8/9 and Geno Auriemma is walking away with his ninth title regardless. No argument here. His team is as loaded and well coached as any -- possibly ever.

But listen to Auriemma.

"Regionals," the coach said, "should be played on a neutral site."

Although that's the ideal scenario, we all know that women's basketball can't be totally ideal. The sport doesn't draw as well in neutral places (once, a regional final was held in Missoula, Montana. I kid you not). So if we're absolutely positive that Final Four berths can be decided on a program's home floor, a No. 1 overall seed should never be the visiting team.

"Somebody is going to have to do it, you know?" Auriemma said. "Somebody is going to Notre Dame, somebody is going to Louisville and somebody is going to Stanford and you'll end up playing the home team in those three places. Do I like it? No.

"We had that situation in 1995," he continued. "We had a regional at Gampel. Back in the day, it was called buying your way into the Final Four. You put in a bid, and the regionals are at your place. I don't like it. That's why we didn't bid on it this time. I'm not in favor of it. I don't think we'll do it again, either."

Top seeds have hosted too many regionals to count. But in the past few decades, how many times has a No. 1 seed been "rewarded" for an amazing regular season with a true away game in the Elite Eight?

Well, No. 1 Penn State lost to No. 2 UConn in the 2004 Hartford region.

No. 1 North Carolina was defeated by No. 2 LSU the 2008 New Orleans region (about an hour drive from campus).

I count six other times in 20 years. And the No. 1 seed did advance to the Final Four in each of those instances.

I don't know how the brackets will shake out this year, but I know that, on principle, the top No. 1 should be paired with the worst No. 2. I know that Louisville is 30-1 against teams not named UConn. I find it very difficult to believe the Cards are the worst No. 2.

By rule, UConn should be sent to the closest region. That's what coaches voted on. But Louisville coach Jeff Walz made a strong point.

"I'm not sure how many (Connecticut) families here have their car gassed up and are prepared to drive to Louisville," Walz said. "I mean, you're going to fly to Louisville or Lincoln."

Lincoln would mean a neutral site for a UConn team that has defeated 12 ranked opponents by 23.5 points per game. Half of those were road games. If these Huskies haven't earned the right to avoid another road game, no one ever will.

UConn has been challenged once this year -- at Baylor in front of a raucous crowd. And if Louisville gets to the Elite Eight, if the Cardinals get a fourth matchup and bury a few early 3s and the Yum! Center gets wild, if...

Who are we kidding?

Remember: This is about principle, not outcome.

Because Walz will leave that Hold 'Em table empty-handed, trudge back to the entrance, plop himself on a concrete bench with the others and wait for the shuttle in silence. There's not a damn thing any of them could have done.